A couple weeks back I pondered if getting a checklist as my first card out of my first pack was the first time it had ever happened. There's no real way to know.
However, something happened this week that I am absolutely sure has never happened before.
I began collecting sports cards in 1988, so I've been doing this a long time. I've pulled cards of thousands upon thousands of people, not just in my three main sports, but also multi-sport and I've opened a few packs of other random sports here and there.
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Until May 1st, 2025, when my family gave me a few blasters to celebrate Glad I'm Not Dead Day, the anniversary of when I got my second chance at life, and I pulled the above card, which is of Arber Xhekaj. I had never pulled a sports card of a person whose last name started with X! While this is my 4th card of him, it's the first I pulled from a pack myself, and I really think that's cool. I've mentioned him on Cardboard History before, I'm definitely collecting him. He's the first and so far only person in all three of the sports I collect to have a name starting with X, although his younger brother Florian is also in Montreal's system and may make it some day. He may have cards in the AHL set, I haven't checked yet. Not the same as making it to the top level though, and if I just went and bought it it wouldn't be as special.
X is the rarest letter for people in my collection. While some letters are approaching 1400 different people, X has only three people, joining him are Malcolm X and Xue Chen, a Chinese volleyball player who got a card in Goodwin Champions a few years back, which I bought on COMC just because her name started with X.
I did mention sports cards because I did pull the card of Malcolm X, so now I have done this feat in both Sports and Non-Sports cards, bringing it to all 26 letters in both aspects of the hobby.
That's very cool! Congratulations on that one.
ReplyDeleteArber can be a bit of a shall we say weenie on the ice, but have to give him credit, he made it the old school way through hard work, not a silver spoon getting him into summer skills camps etc. His mom changes tires at the Costco a couple of kilometers from my place.
ReplyDeleteThat is very cool. Got a good chuckle at your description too!
DeleteI know you already have a non-sport card... but if you're looking for more... there's also Racer X. He has some cards from Speed Racer sets.
ReplyDeleteI only count actual people who lived at one point or another....I'd have to buy a lot of X-Men cards otherwise, haha.
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